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Saturday, July 22, 2017

President Trump tweets he has “complete” ability to pardon

President Donald
Trump claimed in a tweet today that he has the “complete” ability to
pardon, according to the Huffington Post.

Trump’s pardon claim came after The Washington Post reported that he had inquired with
his lawyers about how pardons work and speculation he is considering pardons
for aides, his family, and even potentially himself.

It’s unclear if he actually could legally pardon himself.
The Constitution’s presidential pardon provision does not explicitly ban the
president from doing so. But Elizabeth
Holtzman, a former Democratic congresswoman who served on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate
scandal, argued in a
Post op-ed this month that the president pardoning himself would
undermine the entire constitution.

“A presidential self-pardoning power would seriously
undermine the rule of law. If presidents could self-pardon, they could engage
in monstrously wrongful and criminal conduct with impunity,” she wrote. “That
would utterly violate the framers’ belief in a limited presidency and in the
idea that no president is above the law.”

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.